Carolynn Ghiorso (cq) and her husband Mike have owned Educational Exchange, a teacher supply store in Richmond, for the past 34 years. The shop, which has been there for 40 years, will be closing its doors at the end of November. Ghiorso works their 50% off sale in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, November 18, 2011.
Ran on: 11-25-2011
Carolynn Ghiorso, who owns the Educational Exchange along with her husband, Mike, says it has become impossible for the Richmond District store to compete with big chain stores.

Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle

Carolynn Ghiorso (cq) and her husband Mike have owned Educational...

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Educational Exchange, a teacher supply store in Richmond, will be closing its doors at the end of November after a 40 year run. A customer leaves the store's 50% off sale in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, November 18, 2011.
Ran on: 11-25-2011
A customer leaves the Educational Exchange last week after shopping at the half-off sale. The store will close its doors for good after 40 years in San Francisco's Richmond District.

Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle

Educational Exchange, a teacher supply store in Richmond, will be...

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Barbara Padilla, an employee at Educational Exchange, works in the shop during their 50% off sale in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, November 18, 2011. The teacher supply store in Richmond will be closing its doors at the end of November after a 40 year run.
Ran on: 11-25-2011
Barbara Padilla, who has worked at the store for 20 years, says it served &quo;a universal need to make learning fun.&quo;

Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle

Barbara Padilla, an employee at Educational Exchange, works in the...

Image 4 of 4

Carolynn Ghiorso and her husband Mike have owned Educational Exchange, a teacher supply store in Richmond, for the past 34 years. They will be closing the store at the end of November. Ghiorso mans the shop during their 50% off sale in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, November 18, 2011.

Since 1971, teachers and families have stopped by the little pink corner store in San Francisco to buy school supplies, shirking bigger box stores for a cozy place where customers and cashiers were on a first-name basis and receipts were always written by hand.

But the shelves at the Educational Exchange, one of the Bay Area's last family-owned teacher supply stores, are starting to look empty.

Inside the Richmond District store, there's still a bucket of 79-cent pink erasers near a pile of wooden yardsticks (98 cents each) and a stack of chalk erasers. But workbooks are spread out to cover empty shelf space, which was once filled with thick stacks of books. And the spinning, plastic pencil display featuring a smile-inducing assortment of No. 2 pencils now exists only in the memories of countless pint-sized customers.

After 40 years, the small neighborhood store is closing next week - a mom-and-pop holdout that finally succumbed to the era of big-box stores, a bad economy and budget cuts to classrooms.

"All of these things working together just said it was time," said Mike Ghiorso, who has worked at the store since it opened and has co-owned it with wife Carolynn since 1977.

When local wholesalers went belly-up a while back, the little store had to turn to out-of-town suppliers, but it couldn't order enough from them to justify expensive shipping costs. There was simply no way to compete with Target's 25-cent box of crayons, Carolynn Ghiorso said.

In better days, the couple and their sole employee, Barbara Padilla, made a living from the business, but the store was never about making money, they said.

"I came to work every day happy to come to work," Mike Ghiorso said.

Former teachers

As former teachers, the owners and Padilla knew what worked.

"We had an idea of what was useful in the classroom," Ghiorso said.

They specialized in workbooks that teachers wanted to supplement textbooks and that parents sought to help struggling kids with math or language arts. And bulletin boards in classrooms throughout San Francisco were covered with shapes, numbers, the alphabet or the faces of U.S. presidents, all purchased at the Educational Exchange.

In the early days, when teachers made everything by hand, sales included arrows and brads that they would use to make game spinners.

As time and technology marched on, some things changed. Workbooks evolved to include computer software, and erasable pens were added to share space with old-school chalk.

"We served a universal need to make learning fun," said Padilla, who has worked at the store for 20 years.

Rotary phone

One thing that didn't change was the phone. The old rotary phone remains on the counter, while its less-preferred, push-button counterpart with voice mail is relegated to a distant shelf.

And the store's first dollar - with its Sept. 7, 1971, receipt for a $4.32 sale - is still in its frame on the wall.

The Ghiorsos reminisced about the time in the 1980s when the king of Tonga stopped by to buy $200 worth of workbooks to take back to his country.

And they recalled how the Japanese tour buses would swing by the store at the corner of Anza Street and 35th Avenue to buy sparkly, sporty and colorful pencils and stickers.

Those buses stopped showing up years ago, but the loyal customers kept coming.

The store was a remnant of another time, a place that maybe had higher prices, but so what? The service and smiles more than made up for them, customers said.

"It was just a neighborhood place," said Judy Cosmos, principal of Holy Name of Jesus School in San Francisco. "They would spend time and take you to their books. You never felt rushed. It was very comfortable."

"I loved that place," she said. The big-box stores are "just not the same."

The Ghiorsos and Padilla said they have shed plenty of tears over the closure and they anticipate more to flow when they have to leave for the last time on Wednesday.

What little remains on the shelves is selling for half off - including left-over posters of historical figures and a handful of bright orange pencils that feature a multiplication table in tiny black lettering.

Kids who bought those vowed to never sharpen them, Mike Ghiorso said with a smile.

The Ghiorsos and Padilla said they will move on from the school supply business, but have no plans to retire. They can't afford to.

"We didn't make a fortune," Carolynn Ghiorso said. "But we had a blast."